Redefining the approaches

Translating the ideas into reality is what matters in the end

Hakeem Irfan

Individuals are seen commenting on the prevailing situation every time they get an opportunity. Suggestions are forwarded to the next sitting on the parapet, or inside barber or a bakery shop. Every place seems to be the hot bed of ideas, concepts, plans and projects. Even the cozy chambers of our mosques are warmed up these days with the proposals and prepositions of changes, alterations and modifications in the course of action from all the sides.

Our approaches towards the problems, be it political, social, economic, moral or others, are diverse. Every ‘Paend’ (shop parapet) in the Downtown, cozy lobby in the palatial houses of Uptown and a little square in the village is witness to this bouncing off the ideas.

The precondition for any idea to be successful is its independence from the society’s power structure and safeguards from getting exploited by any section of the society. The idea should not be subservient to the existing forces acting on ground at many levels, as is the norm in the conflict societies otherwise. However this subservience is almost everywhere due to the kind of influences, persuasions and sociopolitical environment we live in. Our entire thought process is censored by different influences that are present around us.

Our own society has traversed a long path where ideas were produced and nourished, but often failed to reach to its ‘logical conclusion’. Perhaps we have failed to wed humanist concerns with revolutionary requirements in our ideas and programmes. We as individuals and as a nation are used to busy unclear ideas, that finally delude us.

Ironically, in Kashmir, adherents to communism offers prayer and secularists quote scripture to support political argument, and an Islamist tries to look more than secular. A politician here behaves as a social worker and vice versa. Scholars try to enter the political domain, and technocrats put forth theories. All this is done to appease a person, party or idea.

This has confused the whole society. Lack of clarity has curtailed the chances of social transformation. History bears witness to the fact that goals are attained only if there is clarity of vision.

Every individual has the freedom to pursue any ideology or thought process, but should pursue it in its pristine form rather than the corrupted version which later corrupts the society itself. As a result we lose access to and control over many things. The relationships within our society become complex, tenuous, and recriminatory.

Diversity of involvement, projection of real concerns without any attempt to create one’s own reality, not opting for the beaten path are necessary to chalk out futuristic strategy. This model can be good for an individual as it can be for a nation. Greater precision in our goals, objectives, inputs, outputs, and regular analysis of the results is the need of hour. Inventing new initiatives and discovering newer forms of institutions, relations and platforms to make a broader consensus. We have to look at the histories of the nations who survived the tough times and managed to reach a place where they remember their struggle as an achievement.

With such a huge responsibility, it is also necessary to fashion and choreograph all these ideas at ground level. It is to be taken to the level of meaningful, thoughtful interactions, ideas and innovations. Further ahead, the concerned platform can use it accordingly.

People who chisel themselves in the institutions and learn to adjust to the changing scenario and emerge as the winners must take the lead. They are able to perceive and understand the dynamics of the environment; can contextualize the events and happenings more delicately and know the art of treading the snaky path in an uncommon situation.

They can work as a team and anchor the situation in a better way what otherwise they only talk of. But these days they are ‘not reachable.’ However, it is a class that proclaims to be the voice of the commoners. It is this relation of representation they derive its power from. But this power gets consumed in self appreciation or in reacting to opposite views and later ducking the retaliations.

It is high time for every one of us to be best in our individual efforts and simultaneously act as oxygen to our suffocated spaces. History remembers the words that were never translated into reality in a very appalling manner.